Chapter 1: Epistemological Foundations for Contemplative Higher Education: Challenging the Dominant Paradigm

The colonists of Maryland and Virginia negotiated a treaty in 1774 with the Indians of the Six Nations, and then invited the tribal elders to send their boys to the College of William and Mary. The elders declined that offer, stating:

Like the gentlemen of Maryland and Virginia, we live and move and have our being within a set of assumptions about the superiority of the dominant culture’s approach to higher education. Until we are challenged to see with eyes immersed in an entirely different set of assumptions, we remain blind to our own cultural embeddedness.

In recent years, contemplative educators have challenged higher education’s dominant culture. They have invited those in higher education to see with fresh eyes, to reflect upon their own cultural entrenchment, and to consider an alternative view of education, with very different assumptions. Some have responded to this invitation with resonance and gratitude. They have felt permission to shift to practicing from within that alternative paradigm. Others have found the alternative paradigm puzzling, repellent, and even threatening.